4 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



the recognition of the Regents of the University. In that year Charles 

 Horton Peck was designated to take charge of such botanical collections 

 as had accumulated in the State Museum, and not long thereafter Mr Peck 

 was officially appointed the State Botanist. To the botanical service of 

 the State Mr Peck thereafter dedicated himself without reserve for the 

 rest of his long life. He added much to the store of knowledg^? of the flow- 

 ering plants, but the veiled world of the flowerless plants the more invited 

 him and to it he specially gave his labors; leaving behind him a harvest of 

 knowledge of them and a repute for his intricate researches which ranks 

 him high on the roll of great botanists. Doctor Peck spared no effort, 

 however, to increase the store of knowledge of all the flora of the State and 

 he is the creator of the large state herbarium. After fifty years of unstinted 

 devotion to his science and to his State, Doctor Peck feU asleep in honor, * 

 in the year 1917. 



Since the date of Torrey's report, the flowering plants have been the 

 subject of study in all parts of the Commonwealth. Botanical societies 

 and local students have multipHed; records have grown; the demand for 

 information has greatly increased; but there has been no reliable exposition 

 of such information accessible to these students. 



It has been with this pui-pose of meeting a wide demand and of setting 

 forth with such excellence as present knowledge and perfected modes of 

 illustration could aftord, that the present work, The Wild Flowers of New 

 York, has been projected. The undertaking, bound to be an arduous one, 

 has not been entered upon hastily. The advice of the leading botanists 

 of this State and country was sought as to its timeliness, its scope, mode 

 of presentation and illustration. The interested public will find it to be 

 not a highly technical guide, couched in closely analytical descriptions, but 

 a comparatively brief text, untechnical so far as the theme permits, accom- 

 panied by color illustrations made from the growing plants. The present 

 State Botanist, Dr Homer D. House, is the responsible author of the work; 

 he has not only prepared the text and its arrangement, but has supervised 

 in detail the color photography; he has accompanied the photographers 



